Biochemistry Research News

February 5, 2026

Top Headlines

This Unexpected Plant Discovery Could Change How Drugs Are Made

Feb. 3, 2026 Plants make chemical weapons to protect themselves, and many of these compounds have become vital to human medicine. Researchers found that one powerful plant chemical is produced using a gene that looks surprisingly bacterial. This suggests plants ...

One of Earth’s Most Abundant Lifeforms Has a Fatal Flaw

Feb. 2, 2026 SAR11 bacteria dominate the world’s oceans by being incredibly efficient, shedding genes to survive in nutrient-poor waters. But that extreme streamlining appears to backfire when conditions change. Under stress, many cells keep copying their DNA ...

A Hidden Bat Virus Is Infecting Humans

Feb. 1, 2026 Researchers in Bangladesh have identified a bat-borne virus, Pteropine orthoreovirus, in patients who were initially suspected of having Nipah virus but tested negative. All had recently consumed raw date-palm sap, a known pathway for bat-related ...

A Fish That Ages in Months Reveals How Kidneys Grow Old

Jan. 30, 2026 A fast-aging fish is giving scientists a rare, accelerated look at how kidneys grow old—and how a common drug may slow that process down. Researchers found that SGLT2 inhibitors, widely used to treat diabetes and heart disease, preserved kidney ...

This Small Soil Upgrade Cut Locust Damage and Doubled Yields

Jan. 24, 2026 Locust swarms can wipe out crops across entire regions, threatening food supplies and livelihoods. Now, scientists working with farmers in Senegal have shown that improving soil health can dramatically reduce locust damage. By enriching soil with ...

Scientists Sent Viruses to Space and They Evolved in Surprising Ways

Jan. 18, 2026 When scientists sent bacteria-infecting viruses to the International Space Station, the microbes did not behave the same way they do on Earth. In microgravity, infections still occurred, but both viruses and bacteria evolved differently over time. ...

Forest Loss Is Driving Mosquitoes’ Thirst for Human Blood

Jan. 15, 2026 In the rapidly disappearing Atlantic Forest, mosquitoes are adapting to a human-dominated landscape. Scientists found that many species now prefer feeding on people rather than the forest’s diverse wildlife. This behavior dramatically raises the ...

This Sweet Fruit Is Packed with Hidden Health Compounds

Jan. 14, 2026 Scientists are taking a closer look at monk fruit and discovering it’s more than just a sugar substitute. New research shows its peel and pulp contain a rich mix of antioxidants and bioactive compounds that may support health. Different varieties ...

Extreme Heat Is Breaking Honey Bees’ Natural Cooling System

Jan. 13, 2026 Honey bees can normally keep their hives perfectly climate-controlled, but extreme heat can overwhelm their defenses. During a scorching Arizona summer, researchers found that high temperatures caused damaging temperature fluctuations inside hives, ...

The Oxygen You Breathe Depends on a Tiny Ocean Ingredient

Jan. 12, 2026 Microscopic ocean algae produce a huge share of Earth’s oxygen—but they need iron to do it. New field research shows that when iron is scarce, phytoplankton waste energy and photosynthesis falters. Climate-driven changes may reduce iron delivery ...

A Hidden World Inside DNA Is Finally Revealed

Jan. 8, 2026 DNA doesn’t just sit still inside our cells — it folds, loops, and rearranges in ways that shape how genes behave. Researchers have now mapped this hidden architecture in unprecedented detail, showing how genome structure changes from cell to ...

Plants Can’t Absorb as Much CO2 as Climate Models Predicted

Jan. 5, 2026 CO2 can stimulate plant growth, but only when enough nitrogen is available—and that key ingredient has been seriously miscalculated. A new study finds that natural nitrogen fixation has been overestimated by about 50 percent in major climate ...

Latest Headlines

updated 12:03pm EST

The Genetic Turning Point That Made Backbones Possible

Feb. 4, 2026 Scientists have uncovered a surprising genetic shift that may explain how animals with backbones—from fish and frogs to humans—became so complex. By comparing sea squirts, lampreys, and frogs, ...

Baby Dinosaurs Were the Backbone of the Jurassic Food Chain

Feb. 1, 2026 Despite growing into the largest animals ever to walk on land, sauropods began life small, exposed, and alone. Fossil evidence suggests their babies were frequently eaten by multiple predators, ...

This Spider’s “pearl Necklace” Was Living Parasites

Jan. 28, 2026 What looked like a pearl necklace on a tiny spider turned out to be parasitic mite larvae. Scientists identified the mites as a new species, marking the first record of its family in Brazil. The ...

Scientists Finally Explain Earth’s Strangest Fossils

Jan. 27, 2026 The Ediacara Biota are some of the strangest fossils ever found—soft-bodied organisms preserved in remarkable detail where preservation shouldn’t be possible. Scientists now think their survival ...

A Hidden Genetic War Is Unfolding Inside Your DNA

Jan. 26, 2026 Our genome isn’t as peaceful as it looks—some DNA elements are constantly trying to disrupt it. Scientists studying fruit flies discovered that key proteins protecting chromosome ends must evolve ...

How the Frog Meat Trade Helped Spread a Deadly Fungus Worldwide

Jan. 19, 2026 A deadly fungus that has wiped out hundreds of amphibian species worldwide may have started its global journey in Brazil. Genetic evidence and trade data suggest the fungus hitchhiked across the ...

A Once-in-a-Generation Discovery Is Transforming Dairy Farming

Jan. 18, 2026 A Michigan dairy farm took a gamble on a new kind of soybean—and it paid off fast. After feeding high-oleic soybeans to their cows, milk quality improved within days and feed costs dropped ...

A Deadly Chemical Frozen in Ice May Have Sparked Life on Earth

Jan. 16, 2026 Hydrogen cyanide, a toxic chemical, may have helped spark the chemistry that led to life. When frozen, it forms crystals with highly reactive surfaces that can drive unusual chemical reactions, even ...

Fewer Offspring, Longer Life: The Hidden Rule of Mammal Aging

Jan. 16, 2026 A large international study reveals that mammals tend to live longer when reproduction is suppressed. On average, lifespan increases by about 10 percent, though the reasons differ for males and ...

Scientists “resurrect” Ancient Cannabis Enzymes With Medical Promise

Jan. 15, 2026 Scientists have uncovered how cannabis evolved the ability to make its most famous compounds—THC, CBD, and CBC—by recreating ancient enzymes that existed millions of years ago. These early ...

When the Oceans Died and Life Changed Forever

Jan. 11, 2026 A rapid climate collapse during the Late Ordovician Mass Extinction devastated ocean life and reshuffled Earth’s ecosystems. In the aftermath, jawed vertebrates gained an unexpected edge by ...

The 4x Rule: Why Some People’s DNA Is More Unstable Than Others

Jan. 9, 2026 A large genetic study shows that many people carry DNA sequences that slowly expand as they get older. Common genetic variants can dramatically alter how fast this expansion happens, sometimes ...

The Invisible Energy Cost That Keeps Life from Falling Apart

Jan. 6, 2026 Living cells pay a hidden energy price not just to run chemical reactions, but to keep them on track and block all the alternatives. A new thermodynamic framework makes it possible to calculate these ...

Ancient Skeletons Reveal Viruses Embedded in Human DNA

Jan. 7, 2026 Researchers have reconstructed ancient herpesvirus genomes from Iron Age and medieval Europeans, revealing that HHV-6 has been infecting humans for at least 2,500 years. Some people inherited the ...

A Hidden Chemical War Is Unfolding Inside Spruce Trees

Jan. 1, 2026 Spruce bark beetles don’t just tolerate their host tree’s chemical defenses—they actively reshape them into stronger antifungal protections. These stolen defenses help shield the beetles from ...

We Are Living in a Golden Age of Species Discovery

Dec. 24, 2025 The search for life on Earth is speeding up, not slowing down. Scientists are now identifying more than 16,000 new species each year, revealing far more biodiversity than expected across animals, ...

Why Evolution Rewarded Ants That Sacrificed Protection

Dec. 22, 2025 Some ants thrive by choosing numbers over strength. Instead of heavily protecting each worker, they invest fewer resources in individual armor and produce far more ants. Larger colonies then ...

Scientists Find a Natural Sunscreen Hidden in Hot Springs Bacteria

Jan. 13, 2026 Researchers studying cyanobacteria from hot springs in Thailand have discovered a new natural UV-blocking compound with impressive antioxidant power. Unlike conventional sunscreens, it’s ...

Your Body Feels Cold in Two Different Ways

Dec. 18, 2025 Researchers have uncovered that the body uses different molecular systems to sense cold in the skin versus internal organs. This explains why surface chills feel very different from cold experienced ...

Scientists Replayed Evolution and Found a Surprise

Dec. 30, 2025 Environmental change doesn’t affect evolution in a single, predictable way. In large-scale computer simulations, scientists discovered that some fluctuating conditions help populations evolve ...

The Invisible Microbes That Help Keep Us Healthy

Jan. 4, 2026 Not all microbes are villains—many are vital to keeping us healthy. Researchers have created a world-first database that tracks beneficial bacteria and natural compounds linked to immune strength, ...

Living Cells May Generate Electricity from Motion

Dec. 16, 2025 Cells may generate their own electrical signals through microscopic membrane motions. Researchers show that active molecular processes can create voltage spikes similar to those used by neurons. ...

The Poison Frog That Fooled Scientists for Decades

Jan. 6, 2026 Researchers discovered that a poison frog species described decades ago was based on a mix-up involving the wrong museum specimen. The frog tied to the official species name turned out to be brown, ...

A Never-Before-Seen Creature Has Been Found in the Great Salt Lake

Jan. 10, 2026 Scientists have identified a brand-new species of worm living in the Great Salt Lake, marking only the third known animal group able to survive its extreme salinity. The species, named ...

A Silent Ocean Pandemic Is Wiping out Sea Urchins Worldwide

Dec. 12, 2025 A sudden, unexplained mass die-off is decimating sea urchins around the world, including catastrophic losses in the Canary Islands. Key reef-grazing species are reaching historic lows, and their ...

This “mushroom” Is Not a Fungus, It’s a Bizarre Plant That Breaks All the Rules

Dec. 20, 2025 Balanophora is a plant that abandoned photosynthesis long ago and now lives entirely as a parasite on tree roots, hidden in dark forest undergrowth. Scientists surveying rare populations across East ...

Researchers Find How Plants Survive Without Sunlight or Sex

Dec. 14, 2025 The study reveals how Balanophora plants function despite abandoning photosynthesis and, in some species, sexual reproduction. Their plastid genomes shrank dramatically in a shared ancestor, yet the ...

New Fossils in Qatar Reveal a Tiny Sea Cow Hidden for 21 Million Years

Dec. 12, 2025 Fossils from Qatar have revealed a small, newly identified sea cow species that lived in the Arabian Gulf more than 20 million years ago. The site contains the densest known collection of fossil sea ...

Male Bonobos Use Hidden Clues to Boost Mating Success

Dec. 14, 2025 Male bonobos have an impressive ability to detect when females are most fertile, even though the usual visual cues are unreliable. Researchers tracking wild bonobos in the Congo discovered that males ...

Gut Molecule Shows Remarkable Anti-Diabetes Power

Dec. 8, 2025 Researchers revealed that the microbial metabolite TMA can directly block the immune protein IRAK4, reducing inflammation and improving insulin sensitivity. The molecule counteracts damage caused by ...